Chapter 35.
Quinn let his eyes linger on her face, "What are you afraid of, Sarah?" She looked away, refusing to answer. "You say you are afraid of both of us…are you really, I wonder? Or are you afraid of letting yourself love us…each of us…differently?"
Sarah looked back at him, "Do you know that Jareth is the only…boyfriend…. I've ever had?"
Considering her words, Quinn sat up. "Well, that does put things into perspective." Swiftly he pulled Sarah up as well. "You see Jareth as a boy." He stated firmly. "How do you see me?" Sarah turned her face away as color rose to her cheeks. "Not as a boy." Quinn let the slow smile take his lips. "You see me as a man."
"A dangerous man." Sarah said still looking away.
"Yes, but Sarah," Quinn spoke in her ear. "You like danger. You live for danger. Like a moth drawn to a flame."
Sarah turned to look at him, her lips a breath from his. "Perhaps I do."
"Sarah," Quinn breathed her in. "Instead of taking you back to when you met Jareth, I should have taken you back to the moment you met me." He raised her hand and kissed it.
"Quinn," She sighed. "We can't go back."
"Then let us go forward." He suggested softly. "What was in your mind when you first saw Quinn of Tarsi?"
"I heard your voice before I saw you, remember?" She said softly. He nodded. "I thought that it was odd that someone else would say my name in same caressing way that Jareth did." She giggled. "I'd always hated my name until I met your brother…he had such a way with saying it…Then you, you said it the same way. Sent shivers down my spine."
Quinn took a deep breath, "Sarah." He said with a smile.
Looking into the mismatched eyes, with the Azure hearts she said quietly. "I thought that you two were more like two severed halves of the same being."
"Did you?" he took off the leather gloves he now wore as Jareth. Reaching forward, he stroked her chin. "What did you think about me?"
"I thought you seemed, unhappy. I saw no joy or smile even reach your eyes. I mean I could see how handsome and poised you were….but not happy." She took a deep breath, "Until you stepped in to dance with me when Jareth was summons away. When you made your…suggestion…. And I slapped you. From that moment on you seemed to be delirious."
"You recall me asking about the song being played?" Quinn asked, eyes twinkling in the light of the stars coming out over head. She nodded. "Well I have to confess I knew parts of the tune. It was something we used to hum…We even hummed it when we built the tower…Until he met you…it never had words or a title."
Sarah pulled back, "If we're going to play twenty questions here, let me ask you one. What did you think of me upon that first meeting?"
"You took my breath away." Quinn recalled. "It took me a moment or two to find it." He smiled softly. "Midnight blue suits you."
"Thank you." She said.
"The hair-do, not so much." He teased.
Sarah laughed. "That was not my idea."
"I know." He winked. "Sarah, you in less than six months conquered the hearts of both of the Sons."
"And without even trying." She teased. "Image what I could do if I put my mind to it?"
"You mean like when you whipped up that Mystics outfit?" Quinn said in a dark growl.
"Oh liked that did you?" she feigned innocents.
"I liked what it…showed." He teased back.
Sarah laughed softly. "It was damned cold, I much prefer court gowns." She looked away.
"It may have been cold to wear, but believe me, it had very warm effects on the men interested in you." Quinn moved closer. "Just thinking about it….gives a man ideas."
She refused to look at him. "Does it?" Sarah giggled. "Gee I wonder what kinds of ideas."
Quinn took hold of her shoulders, tipped her back and she was across his lap looking up at him. "Ideas that make the Pear Closet sound tame." He growled wolfishly. Lowering his face, to hers he drew her into a long lingering kiss. His hands caressed her with gentle pressure. Quinn spoke against her lips. "Touch me, Sarah…don't hold back." He pleaded. Tentatively, with fear and trepidation, she reached up her right hand. Slowly she cupped the chin moving on hers. The face turned, placing a kiss into the cupped hand. "Don't be afraid, beloved." He whispered.
"I still feel…strange about this," she admitted.
Quinn sighed, stroked her face and asked. "Do you like me, Sarah? Not the combined me…but me…Quinn…do you like me?"
The young woman looked into the eyes of the man holding her. "Yes, I do, even when I don't want to."
Gently rubbing his nose to hers, he mused. "That's a start."
She swallowed her pride. "Do you like me?"
"Yes, ma petite. I like you…very much." He admitted. "If things had been different. Had it been I who had been summons that night. The screaming baby would have been left in the crib and the babe in the jeans would have been taken to the castle and chased round the throne until she was breathless."
Sarah blushed. "Quinn." She protested.
"I'm serious, much as I understand Jareth's job…He took the wrong baby, baby." The man kissed he nose.
"Quinn I was fifteen." She giggled.
"Would not have mattered to me…You were just sixteen when I met you." He reminded her. "We Fae have a different way of looking at things."
"Perverse!" taunted the girl in his arms.
"You'll like perverse once you get use to it." He taunted back. He sighed. "Well if Jareth was your first boyfriend, that makes me your second."
Sarah groaned. "Oh that sounds awful."
"Let's make that I'm your first man."
"That sounds perverse." She giggled.
"It sounds promising." He said with a smile. "This is a good start, Sarah."
"A good start to what, Quinn?"
"A real bonding." He stated.
"So why does it make me feel like I've abandoned Jareth?"
Quinn turned pensive. "We haven't, not either of us. He's with us always."
Sarah reached up and touched his face. "Is he? Can he feel what we are doing? Does he know what he's asked of us?"
"Sarah, you are the consort of the Goblin King." He was more sensitive than he had ever been with anyone. "There will in the end be only one. And that one will be Jareth , The Goblin King."
"And you?"
"A beautiful memory." He sighed.
Sarah felt the tears long before they formed.